Another article on Uzhhorod, in Transcarpathian Ukraine, showing how the war is influencing the attitudes towards Roma in the country.
A reportage in Transcarpathian Ukraine, in a Roma settlement in Uzhhorod. Attitudes towards Roma are changing due to the war ands some of the stereotypes are changing.
Good.
A new book was recently published on the World War Two history of the Rivne region in the Ukraine. It presents the repression by the Soviet NKVD (the FSB and KGB) predecessor against Roma who had fled from Poland. In particular, the Lovara family Kwek (or Kvivk).
They were accused to be spies for the German.
A reportage of Roma from the Donetsk region who were displaced by the war and who settled in Vinnytsia region (Central Ukraine). They bought houses and were allowed to use some others in the village of Potoky. All in all 68 Roma moved there.
An article about the many Roma who are fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian army.
Portraits and discussions with Ukrainian activists, among which Ruslana Polyanska, a Romni who studied at the Central European University. They speak also about sterotypes.
A rochade among refugees in Germany. A group of Ukrainian refugees was moved away from their current home to make space for Hungarian speaking Roma refugees from Transcarpathian Ukraine who were in a temporary camp. The original refugees will be put in better homes, apparently, rather than in that particular large home they were in.
A bit of a mess, and the Germans admit their communication was not optimal.
Volodymyr and Radislav Mykhaylov are Roma from the Chernihiv Oblast to the northeast of Kyiv. Volodymyr sings at charity concerts while Radislav fights in the Ukrainian forces. Radislav came back from abroad to enroll in the army.
Weird news from Transcarpathian Ukraine, where the police stopped a car with 12 Roma in it, some in the car’s trunk. It seems the driver also had some false papers.
Eleonora Kulchar is an Ukrainian Romni who fascinates and fascinates with her desire to help everyone. She heads the “Blago” charitable foundation and is the national coordinator of the REYN-Ukraine network project, which deals with the early development of Roma children.
In her every word, you can feel how sincerely she is working for her cause and Ukraine. In half an hour, while we were talking, she was called several times, someone came to ask something important, and someone just to say hello.
And even while working in non-stop mode, she continues to radiate a huge force that can literally be felt in the air: “I know what I have to do. I ask God for help and I feel how he fills every cell of my body with strength.
Now Mrs. Eleonora is in charge of the first and so far the only shelter for Roma. About its everyday life, problems and residents – in our material.
In the occupied region of Makiivka, a family of 8 Roma was shot. The youngest victim, shot in the head, was a year old. Apparently, they were shot by Wagner Mercenaries who wanted to steal a car. Three of them have apparently been arrested.
The Sykhiv District Court of Lviv sentenced one of the perpetrators who, together with accomplices, attacked a Roma camp in 2018. The attack occurred in June 2018 when seven people attacked the Roma camp, which was located in a forest strip on the outskirts of Lviv. As a result of the attack, one person died, and four others were injured. The attackers prepared the attack in advance. They bought masks and armed themselves with knives, metal pipes, wooden sticks, chains and hammers.
The man was found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to 5 years in prison. However, he was released from serving a probationary sentence, having been placed on probation for 2 years.
Really? For premeditated murder?
Another case of Ukraine’s border police stopping military age men from crossing the border illegally. The article mentions quite a few men doing that, but the onus is unfortunately on Roma – of which from 17, on 3 were men. Bad and not exactly nice to Roma.
A large group of war refugees cannot be accommodated in the reception desk at the railway station in Przemyśl in Eastern Poland, and the time of stay, at the Humanitarian Aid Centre limited to 48 hours, is too short for them to find another place of accommodation or decide on their further journey. The problem mainly affects the Roma. Only people with a valid train ticket can enter the accommodation at the reception desk at the PKP railway station in Przemyśl. This was criticised by the Ombudsman.
This time in the Slovak Press, an article that cites the same sources as the Ukrainians regarding the execution of 28 Roma in Ukraine’s occupied territories by Russian troop.
Bad.
In the occupied Ukrainian territory, the Russian military shot 28 Roma for poisoning a company of Russian soldiers with vodka. This was stated in an intercepted conversation of one of the Russian soldiers and was reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of the Ukraine.
A Russian soldier tells his wife about the lawlessness that is taking place in the territories occupied by Russia.
“Do you know what chaos is happening in the cities here? The military police recently shot 28 gypsies, put them against the wall and shot them because they gave vodka to our military and poisoned them, the whole company,” the Russian says in a conversation. The military of the Russian Federation adds that there were 96 people in the company, and now there are less than fifty left.
A telephone conversation of a Russian soldier in the Donbas was intercepted by the Ukrainians. Apparently, Russians shot 28 Roma for having “poisoned” them with Vodka.
Another war crime.
This is not good in any way: Articles in the Ukrainian press about Roma being arrested while trying to cross the border illegally to Hungary. In each of the cases at hand, this concerned young men or even conscripts. This is bad as it gives the impression that Roma are not pro-Ukrainian, which is far from the reality, and even in one case, that they help people fleeing conscription.
The Church World Service is launching a program aimed at helping Roma refugees from the Ukraine in Moldova.
An article in the German press on Roma in the Ukraine. As usual, the focus lies on Transcarpathia and, together with Bessarabia, represent an exception regarding to the situation of Roma in the Ukraine. In those two regions, the situation is really bad, with ghettoes and unemployment. But in places where the majority of Roma are Xaladytka and Servi, the situation is very different.
This is almost never presented in the press.
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